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Paris on edge as panic erupts among crowds of mourners

Sudden noises and false rumours were all it took to set Parisians running, emptying the Place de la République in seconds.

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Panic-stricken people who had gathered at Le Carillon restaurant in Paris, the site of one of last Friday's attacks, suddenly ran away from the scene en masse over a false alarm.(Reuters)

By Riley SparksMegan DolskiSpecial to The Star

Sun., Nov. 15, 2015

PARIS—All it took was the sound of breaking glass.

Packed with mourners since terrorist attacks on Friday killed 132 people, the Place de la République in central Paris emptied in seconds on Sunday as word of a person with a gun cascaded into mass panic.

“They’re over there, they’re coming!” a woman yelled, sprinting down the street with a fleeing mob behind her.

Left behind were only police officers, their guns drawn, taking cover by the foot of the statue of Marianne, the symbol of the French republic who towers over the square.

People in the crowd said someone nearby said something about a person with a gun. One swore he saw a gunman. Somebody shouted “Take cover!” and people panicked, a woman said.

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Too-quick posts on social media and jumpy reporters amplified the panic, spreading rumours of a new shooting in the neighbourhood.

Mourners gather outside a service at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris on Sunday, two days after terror attacks targeted sites across the city. (Tomas Munita / The New York Times)

It was nothing — a light bulb exploded and some glasses broke at a bar nearby, French media later reported.

But the city is on edge. “This will happen again. It’s not the first time, and it won’t be the last,” a police officer standing at the edge of the square said, watching people cautiously gather again.

The same scene played out minutes before, near Le Carillon bar and the Petit Cambodge restaurant where gunmen killed 15 people on Friday. A police officer said a loud noise scattered the crowd of mourners, emptying the corner for the first time since Saturday morning.

Parisians have gathered in the Place de la République since Friday, despite requests from the police on Saturday to stay home.

Standing in the square, Julien Carmoni insisted that the attacks didn’t scare him — not Charlie Hebdo, and not Friday’s shootings.

But on Saturday he and his friends stayed inside, he said, like many in the city. Parisians may not be scared — or they’re trying hard not to be — but many can’t stop looking over their shoulders.

“This doesn’t bother you, sitting here on this terrasse, does it?” Yuko Ogino, an employee at a technology company in Paris, asked a reporter on Saturday, sipping afternoon wine on a restaurant patio in one of the neighbourhoods attacked on Friday.

She barely left her apartment on Saturday, either.

“This time, it really felt like it could have been you,” she said. “It’s different. It was random, but France was a target. This was an an attack on Parisiens and on the things they love.”

Ogino described her neighbourhood, the 11th arrondissement, as a vibrant place where young Parisians live and go out. The area always felt like a village in the middle of a huge city, she said, where everyone has their local something.

“It was really comforting yesterday when I opened my window and saw that my butcher was open,” she said. “Just familiar people doing normal things.”

A man carries two children after panic broke out Sunday in Paris among mourners who payed their respects at restaurant Le Petit Cambodge (Little Cambodia) and the Le Carillon bar, two of the sites hit in Friday's attacks. (Peter Dejong)

Walking through the streets on Sunday, Ogino said she found herself drawn to the windows of passing cars, thinking about an interview with a woman who described locking eyes with one of the gunmen just before he fired.

“I think Paris will be OK, because of that sense of community here,” she said. “So many people supporting other people builds this chain reaction of kindness that makes everyone stronger.”

Hundreds of people lined up outside the Notre Dame Cathedral for a memorial service on Sunday night. Heavily armed police watched over the crowds.

Anne-Laure Gonnet was making breakfast for her son Martin on Saturday morning when his cartoons were interrupted by the news. The 5-year-old knew something bad had happened.

“I can’t lie to my son,” she said. “But we have to use the right words to talk about this stuff.”

She tried to focus on showing Martin where the attacks had happened — far away from his home — and that the police were doing good work to protect the city.

“We tried not to show him how much the event shocked and saddened us. But he did see me cry,” she said.

Martin, like children across the country, will be heading back to school on Monday for the first time since the attacks.

Gonnet is trying not to think of what-ifs. “This wasn’t the first time and it will happen again,” she said. “But I’m not afraid and am still going to live.”

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